Since the introduction of Internet browser application programs with Graphical User Interfaces (GUI), Web page designers have been looking for ways to liven up their Web page designs while providing current and reliable information. To make their Web pages more appealing, Web page designers and users started adding preformatted objects, such as clip art, to their Web pages. For example, many Web page designers began using clip art objects as icons, or in the title of the Web pages. Although the clip art objects added to the visual appeal of the Web pages, they provided very little, if any, information to users.
As graphical Web page development improved, Web page designers began to expand the types of objects they incorporated into their Web pages. Designers started adding animated clip art, photographs, video files, and audio files to their Web pages. For example, Web page designers of news Web sites began adding video clips of news reports to their Web pages. Visitors to the news Web sites could select a video clip and view the news report in a pop-up window in the browser application program. The designers typically uploaded these files manually onto the server hosting their Web page, which was a time consuming and expensive process. As a result, these files were frequently outdated by the time the new files were uploaded onto the servers.
One method used to reduce the work of uploading objects on servers is known as HTML capture, or Web capture. Web capture allows web designers to retrieve information easily from another Web site and display it on their Web pages. However, Web capture methods are limited to “static” captures. That is, the captured element cannot be updated without the user performing the entire Web capture operation. For example, suppose a user wants to display the current quotes for several stocks, such as International Business Machines (IBM), Microsoft Corporation, and Apple, Inc. on his or her own Web page. The user individually selects the quotes for each company from an electronic ticker on a target Web page and uses Copy and Paste commands to display the quotes from IBM, Microsoft, and Apple in a table on his Web page. However, because the user “cut and pasted” the stock quotes into his Web page, the content behind the quotes is static. That is to say, it will never change as the stock quotes change on the target Web page. If the user wanted to update, or refresh the stock quotes, the user would have to perform the same Web capture routine for each individual stock all over again. Unfortunately, this method of cutting and pasting elements from a target Web page into the user's Web page is inefficient and time consuming. Furthermore, because the user must manually select, copy, and paste the desired elements into his or her Web page, this method can lead to errors being introduced, especially if the underlying data on the target page has changed or has been moved to a different location on the target Web page. The user may accidentally select the wrong element, and thereby introduce errors into his or her Web page.
One method to alleviate the necessity for repeatedly cutting and pasting objects from the target Web page is using Web Queries to place HTML objects into spreadsheet application programs. Web Queries offer users a predictable way of importing table data into a spreadsheet application program from any source on the Worldwide Web. The user points the Web Query at an HTML document on either a Web server or a file server and imports either part or all of the content of the HTML document into the spreadsheet application program. To initiate a Web Query, a user may select the Web Query option from a menu, which opens a Web Query dialog box. The user inputs the URL of the desired Web page in an address bar associated with the Web Query dialog box, and the Web page is then displayed in a display area of the Web Query dialog box. The user then selects either the entire Web page, or a combination of tables within the Web page to download to the spreadsheet application program. Typically, the user has the option of importing the tables into the spreadsheet application in one of several formats. For instance, the user may elect to import the table data in plain text format, rich text format, or HTML text format.
Although Web Queries have mitigated the necessity for repeatedly cutting and pasting objects from the target Web page into a spreadsheet application, Web Queries have several drawbacks. First, Web Queries are limited in the type of data that is allowed to be imported from the target Web page. Because Web Queries are used only with spreadsheet application programs, only table objects may be imported from a target Web page. Users are not allowed to import graphical objects, such as picture files and video files, audio files, or the like using Web Queries. Moreover, since only table objects may be imported, only the underlying content, i.e., the numerical data is imported into the spreadsheet application program. All other content associated with the data, such as the formatting, cell dimensions, etc. are not rendered by the Web Queries.
This is not to say that users have no control over how the tabular data is imported. Users may select whether the table object should be imported as plain text, rich text, or full HTML text. However, it is typically recommended users import the table objects using either the plain text, or rich text formats. This is due to the fact that the full HTML formatting option may be disruptive to spreadsheet application program since the Web Query applies merged cells in the spreadsheet application program to represent commonly used nested tables in HTML. Another drawback to Web Queries is that if the table object contains data that is linked back to a reference Web site, the Web Query will not preserve the link. For example, if a user creates a Web Query that contains critical stock quotes, in which each stock quote contains a link back to a “reference” Web page that contains the detailed information about that particular stock. The Web Query will maintain the link back to the target Web page so that the quote for the particular stock can be updated. However, the Web Query will not preserve any links back to the reference Web page. This is due to the fact that the link back to the reference Web page is a “relative” URL, that is it based upon the file path of the current document containing the stock quote. When Web Query renders the particular stock quote in the spreadsheet application program, the file path of the current document containing the stock quote is altered to the location of the spreadsheet application program, thereby rendering the URL of the reference Web page inoperable.
Therefore, there is a need for a more efficient method for capturing elements from Web pages and displaying the captured elements in another application program. In particular, there is a need for a more efficient method for dynamically linking the captured elements to the target Web page to provide a simple and effective method for updating, or refreshing, the captured element within a browser application program.